9 



15 *EI?TANDRIA VON043YNSJU Fl'imuh, 



called Nkaha, From both countries it has been repeatedly in- 

 troduced in the Botanic Garden where it blossoms freely during 

 the cold season ; the difficulty, hoivever, of preserving this and the 

 following species is very great, as numbers die during the hot wea- 

 ther,, and in the rains. 



This lovely plant has been -so fully described by Sir J, E. Smith 

 that it is only necessary to add one observation. While young the 

 top of the root produces a number of large, oval, concave, acute, 

 closely imbricated, rose-coloured, membranaceous bractes, which 

 embrace all the tender parts and even the imperfectly formed um- 

 bel. As the plant advances in age most of them disappear, but 

 some remain us has been represented in the figure quoted above. 

 — N. W. 



~"2. P. prolifera, Wall. 



Very smooth, free from meal ; leaves oblong, sub-spatulate, ob- 

 tuse, dentate, petioled ; scape very long \jlowers umbelled, becoming 

 verticilled ; bractes linear or deformed-leafy Asiat. Res. xiii.p. 372. 



A native of the mountains bordering on Silhet whence it was in- 

 troduced into the Botanic Garden by my worthy assistant, the late 

 Mr M. R. Smith. Time of blossoming -February to April. - 



The only species to which, this elegant plant has any resemblance 

 is P. veiticdlata ; it differs, however, sufficiently in its entire smooth- 

 ness, its oblong, blunt, denticulated leaves, and many-flowered 

 whorls with eiect bractes, varying in their form, generally foliacious 

 in the lowermost and linear in the others. — N. W. 



3. P. rotund) folia, Wall. 



Leaves round-cordate with acute broad teeth, both the lower part 

 and the round, many-flowered umbel, are covered with dense yel- 

 lowish nieal; petioles long and slender ; involucels setaceous half the 

 length of the pedicels; tube long; lacinia ovate crenulate ; mouth 

 open, surroundtcl with a nairovv annular margin. 



